Author: Jen

I am such a delinquent blogger. I made this little mini Team Ironman quilt a couple months ago for my 2016 Birthday Fun Swap. The birthday girl of the month was a huge Marvel fan, especially Ironman. I made this mini quilt with a free pattern from Quiet Play.

For the rest of the package, I included a Sew-Together bag by Sew Demented, which I did in Marvel theme.

I included some fun extras, including a tumbler I decorated with vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo, a couple decals and some Ant Man and Iron Man goodies.

Share this:

Like this:

I know this is primarily a crafty blog, but indulge me while I GEEK OUT for a bit. I just got back from an incredible girls’ weekend in Philadelphia, spent eating amazing food and hanging out with David Duchovny. If you read my post about my X-Files Quilt, you know I am a huge fan, so when I got an email announcing David Duchovny and two other X-Files Cast Members (Mitch Pileggi and William B Davis.) would be at Wizard World in Philadelphia, I jokingly emailed my friend Amanda and suggested we should go. Before I knew it, our little wouldn’t-that-be-awesome pipe dream became a reality with plane tickets, hotel reservations and VIP passes to the Comic Con. (Never mind that right after that we found out they will also be in Chicago…)

Like any crafty geek, I set to work making a few things for the trip. I made an entire outfit, a miniature version of my quilt (using just the I Want to Believe block.) and a bag.

First, the outfit. I didn’t go full cosplay, but did a more inspired-by ensemble. I used the UFO fabric that was the backing of my quilt to make a skirt. I used the EYMM Capsule skirt pattern, which I have now made 3 more since then, it’s a great little skirt. For the top, I brainstormed but eventually came up with a baseball jersey as a nod to the X-Files episode The Unnatural. The episode happens to be a favorite of mine and is a fun little story about baseball and how all the greatest players were actually aliens. It ends with a touching little moment with Mulder and Scully playing baseball, including a Mulder monologue that I think perfectly encapsulates the dynamics of the series. It is also the first episode that David Duchovny wrote and directed.

The team in The Unnatural is the Roswell Grays, so I used that as my base. Because I already chose the skirt fabric, I went with black and white, rather than the navy and gray in the show. I also added some other details to make it a little more X-Files-y.

I found these “X” buttons on Etsy and they are a perfect little detail I just love.

And I couldn’t decide what I should do with the back, whether to put a number or not, and if I should use the numbers that appear on the main player’s jersey, or the one that is on Mulder’s. Somehow through a little stroke of inspiration I landed on a baseballified derivative of the show’s iconic line “Trust No One.”

The lettering for the front and back were done with my Silhouette Cameo, I traced an image I found of the show jersey to get the lettering right in the front. The back is an X-Files font. They are all cut from black fabric and hand-appliqued with zigzag stitching. Time consuming and a definite labor of love!

My next project was a smaller version of the quilt so I could take it and have it autographed. I wasn’t willing to deal with carrying a full sized quilt on an airplane and around Comic Con, so I used the fandominstitches.com pattern for the I Want to Believe poster than hung in Mulder’s office all these years.

I used the leftover spoon flower fabric to back it.

Then the fun really began. We flew to Philly on Friday morning, super early, got there by lunch time and checked in for our VIP passes. We explored the city, ate a bunch of great food and walked about 10 miles that day.

Saturday was the real fun, though! Started out the morning running into a Storm Trooper who I took a photo with since I know my kiddos would love it.

Mid-morning we had an autograph session. We met a few cool people in line and chatted. We are lucky the lady behind us snapped these photos when it was my turn to get my autograph. I think at first he was hesitant to sign the quilt, though I assured him I made it just for this purpose.

Then he glanced up and noticed my shirt. He commented on it and then leaned over and signed it too. Which was totally unexpected and awesome.

Later in the afternoon we had a photo op, which only lasts about a minute but he commented again on my shirt. Day made.

Share this:

Like this:

I finished up the binding on this Denver Broncos quilt today, it’ll be in the mail tomorrow to my nephew. Last week was his 9th birthday and I had hoped it would be done in time but it’s just a tad late. He’s a Broncos super fan, so I know he will love it, even if it’s belated.

I sent the quilt out for long-arm quilting, which has a fun football motif. I kept the patchwork simple and used tonal fabrics to accent the logo fabric. The back is a different Broncos fabric as well.

I also did a paper-pieced pillow to match. I hope he loves it. Even if it is a little past his birthday.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

This Jacket is a BIG DEAL in the Resistance: Finn’s Jacket from Star Wars Force Awakens made by Jen at Just-Joshin.com

This is my post for Craftingcon.com for Star Wars month. I made my son this jacket he obsessively requested since he made his first inquiry about 3 minutes after the Force Awakens ended when we saw it in December. He adores Finn (Who Doesn’t?) and has been fashioning his own “Finn outfit” by folding in a collar of a flannel shirt and dressing all in black underneath. Points for Creativity. He really does love his new jacket, this is just his “serious Finn face.” He’s been running around the house yelling, “I’m in charge, Phasma! I’m in Charge!”

I’m Jen, a life-long nerd, crafter and sometimes-blogger at just-joshin.com where I share my quilting and sewing hobbies. I participated in Craftin Con Avengers and Ghibli. I love fandom and geeky inspired sewing, especially for my kids.

My family is Star Wars obsessed, so it’s no surprise that we saw The Force Awakens opening weekend, and then again a couple more times that month. As we walked to the car after the first showing, my son requested that I make Finn’s jacket. He’s asked about a thousand times since December, “Is my Finn jacket done yet?” But the honest truth about my craftiness, if I don’t have a hard deadline, it probably won’t get done. So when Crafting Con Star Wars month showed up in my feed, I knew I could finally get Finn’s jacket made for my son. Only five months after his first of thousands of requests.

Finn is such a great character, he’s funny and charming and loyal. It’s no wonder my son adores him. (Plus, John Boyega is so adorably likable and a huge Star Wars nerd like us. If you haven’t watched the Force Awakens extra features, you should, it’s great. My favorite thing was watching John Boyega geek out about seeing the Millennium Falcon the first time on set, like a kid in a candy store.)

I used the Ollie Bomber Jacket pattern from Sew a Little Seam as my starting point, though I admit to straying from the pattern almost entirely. I bumped the size up to 10, even though my kiddo is in about a 6-7, since the pattern is designed for fabric with stretch, which mine didn’t have, and because I don’t want to make this again in 6 months when he has another growth spurt! I sort of winged it on the construction so it doesn’t follow the pattern at all. I skipped the collar entirely and replaced the ribbed cuffs and waistband with plain cuffs.

I found faux gold leather on fabric.com that was pretty close to the color/texture of Finn’s jacket in the movie. I am usually a pretty straight-forward cotton woven and jersey knit girl, so I didn’t know what to expect, but this sewed up pretty well with a leather needle in my machine. I couldn’t find a good red accent online so I went to my local fabric store and found some home-dec microsuede. It was a little too fuzzy and not really worn/weathered like it needed to be for this project. (And believe me, my son had very specific criteria for how this jacket should look.) I ended up trying something a little crazy but it worked. I spread regular old Elmer’s school glue onto the microsuede in a thin layer, and then ironed it to dry and set the glue. I used a teflon sheet over the glue and it worked perfectly. I didn’t anticipate ever washing this jacket so I am not that worried about the glue washing away, though I suspect it would wash right out.

Most of the work was in the details. It was very important to my son that it not zip or button and didn’t have a collar. The shoulder and sleeve trim was the most intensive, essentially I cut long strips of the leather and created pleats manually while feeding it through the machine, first one edge then the other. Then I made some narrow piping and attached it to the edges so it could be easily turned under and top stitched.

The final little detail was in the buckles. They are just plastic belt buckles from the fabric store but they look similar enough to the original they passed the test of my 6-year-old’s discerning eye for detail.

Needless to say he was ecstatic he finally got his Finn jacket. He wants to wear it to school and to bed and every day forever. When we dropped by Jakku (why does everyone want to go there!?!?) for an after-school photo shoot-slash-battle with a Storm Trooper, he requested I also take photos at Maz’s place, inside the Millennium Falcon (I assume I will have to build it, I’ll add that to my to-do list…) with BB-8, Kylo Ren’s ship and of course Starkiller Base. It’s a Star Wars themed Give a Mouse a Cookie thing here.

(I didn’t make the Storm Trooper costume, as modeled by my other son, and yes, I know it’s the wrong-era trooper, but we do what we can here on planet earth to keep the peace in the brotherhood.)

The #maythe4thMQS swap I hosted has gone pretty smoothly. For the most part, people have all shipped on time, checked in and the quilts they’ve made are nothing short of amazing.

I had one swapper contact me and let me know she had a family emergency and she was concerned she wouldn’t be able to ship on time. I told her not to worry, family always comes first. And I stepped in and made this little Droid-inspired mini quilt in her place.

I used the Quiet Play patterns for the droids and added the text with my embroidery machine. How cute are R2 and C3PO?

I had a little fun practicing with my free-motion quilting and in addition to swirls, I added stars, which was something new.

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

When Fandom in Stitches announced the X-Files Quilt Along to correspond with the X-Files Revival in January, it rekindled my long-dormant X-Files obsession. I had watched all the original X-Files episodes in college, but hadn’t watched in a long, long time. In preparation for the revival episodes, I started binging on the originals on Netflix, starting with the Pilot. I remembered why I loved this show, it’s just so great. (And despite the gigantic cell phones, it has aged well.) The characters are amazing, it’s funny and touching and dramatic, sometimes all at once. Of course, I ended up watching while I was sewing, all the way through start to finish, then started over again at the pilot, as any insane person would.

I finished the quilt top and sent it out to have it quilted, I am so glad I did. I couldn’t have done this kind of work on my home sewing machine, and I love the honeycomb pattern. (Because Bees!)

I cannot even put into words how much fun I had with this quilt. I started with the Fandom in stitches patterns, which were a mix of paper piecing and embroidery. (Though I admit to not being thrilled about hand-embroidery, so I did it manually on my sewing machine.) The embroidered blocks include Mulder and Scully, Skinner, Cigarette Smoking Man, a Grey Alien, The Lone Gunmen, and a tiny Doggett and Reyes. The major paper piecing patterns from the original are the large text blocks “Trust No One” and “The Truth is Out There.”

When I started looking for fabrics, I happened upon a couple fabrics that just seemed perfect. I found a great combination of aliens and science, just like the X-Files. I added in the hexagon fabric (and later the hexagonal quilting) as a nod to the bees storyline. Throughout the quilt there is UFO, DNA, scientific equations and honeycombs, all in the black/grey/lime/teal scheme.

After the initial quilt along, people submitted additional patterns, so I added a couple to my quilt, including the X logo from the credits, and the taped X from Mulder’s window.